This invention relates to apparatus for pressure packing meat casings, and the like, and more particularly to an apparatus which packs the food tightly into the casing and then ties the casing by crimping a clip about the neck of the casing.
In the food industry, it is typical to pack food such as meat, cheese, and the like, in casings formed of cloth, plastic, and similar materials. After the food has been initially inserted into the casing, the casing must be sealed off. However, before such sealing, it is typical to pack the food tightly within the casing so that the food will remain solid and neatly packed for shipment and storage. The seal on the casing is usually a clip or other fastener which is banded or crimped about the neck portion of the casing after the food has been solidly packed into the casing.
Various machines have been available for both packing the food into the casing and then fastening the casing with a band around the neck portion. One such mechanism is described in my foregoing U.S. Pat. No. 2,716,751 issued on Sept. 6, 1955 for a Machine For Banding Meat Casings. In this device, the casing with the food in it is placed in a yoke assembly. The forward end of the casing is grasped between a pair of jaws and longitudinally pulled so that the neck of the casing passes through the yoke assembly with the food being retained behind the yoke assembly so as to be tightly packed within the casing. With the jaws still holding the forward end of the casing, an inverted U-shaped clip inserted into the throat of the yoke assembly is stapled in place by pulling down on a lever which closes the head portion of the yoke assembly fastening the clip about the neck of the casing.
In my U.S. Pat. No. 2,972,791, issued on Feb. 28, 1961 for a Casing Tie and Making Same, there is described an improved U-shaped metallic fastener for use in sealing the food casing and there is also described a feed mechanism for feeding the U-shaped fasteners horizontally into a throat area where it is compressed about a casing to fasten the. end of the casing.
In my U.S. Pat. No. 3,017,638, issued on Jan. 23, 1962 for Machine for Tieing Casings, there is also described an improved feeding mechanism for feeding the U-shaped metallic fasteners into a crimping device and subsequently inserting the fastener in place for crimping a body casing, finally indenting the fastener to an extent sufficient to effect a permanent seal about the casing.
While each of the foregoing patents describe improved apparatus for pressure packing of casings, they all require manual operation and accordingly do not provide high speed capabilities for pressure packing. Furthermore, they all utilize U-shaped clips either placed manually or automatically fed into a throat area and accordingly the initial distribution and dispensing of such preshaped U-shaped fasteners requires space and is cumbersome for easy shipping and storage. Additionally, the longitudinal grasping and pulling of the forward end of the casing in order to tightly pack the food into the casing, necessitates a long work area in order to adequately provide sufficient pull on the casing for such pressure packing.
Accordingly, while there presently exists apparatus for pressure packing of food into casings and sealing off the casings, there is a need for a fully automatic machine for effecting such operation which can bring about reduced costs and improved efficiencies.